“There’s no place in a creative environment for a guy watching the figures”: a meso-level analysis of the use of budgeting by music producers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct a meso-level analysis of the use of budgeting by creative individuals involved in the production of popular music, an area where there is tension between creativity and control. Design/methodology/approach The paper gathers interview data from music producers, who are creative individuals with overall responsibility for organising and managing music production projects. Through a strong structuration lens, the study investigates how music producers relate to and use budgeting across projects. Findings The findings of the study highlight how budgeting, as a temporal and ordering device, has a transformative impact on the behaviour and actions of agents within music production. The study finds that music producers carefully manage budgeting’s use while struggling with inner tensions about the extent to which budgeting’s presence is acceptable within the creative environment of music production. The internal structures of music producers, and their ability to assess their context, are key to arriving at the correct application of budgeting in creative situations. Originality/value The paper increases the understanding of how non-accounting actors use budgeting within creative and musical spaces, furthering the understanding of the social functioning of accounting. It does so by using strong structuration theory to investigate the use of accounting at a meso-level of analysis. The combination of these two elements results in new findings in accounting and popular culture research.